Amazing Baked Apples with Vanilla-Honey Yogurt

from Clean Eating magazine (Jan/Feb 2010)

Serves 4

• 1 medium lemon
• 4 large, firm apples, cored and hollowed (leaving bottoms intact)
• 2 T unsalted almond butter (or unsalted nut butter of your choice)
• 1 T unsweetened dried apricots, chopped
• 1 T dried, pitted prunes, chopped
• 1 T unsweetened raisins
• 2 T toasted shaved hazelnuts, divided (I used walnuts)
• 2 tsp raw organic honey (I used the squeezable bear honey)
• 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon

Vanilla-Honey Yogurt

• 1 C low-fat plain yogurt (I used fat-free Greek yogurt)
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract (I used the fake stuff)
• 2 tsp raw organic honey (again - squeezable bear works just as well!)

Preheat oven to 375. Juice lemon, yielding about 2 T juice. Then split open lemon and rub inside flesh over inside of each apple. Drizzle about 1/8 tsp lemon juice inside cavity of each apple, reserving remaining juice. In bowl, combine almond butter, apricots, prunes, raisins, hazelnuts (reserving 1 tsp for garnish), honey and cinnamon. Stuff each cavity with filling, dividing evenly among 4 apples. Press stuffing down firmly and place apples cavity-side-up, in a shallow baking dish. Mix together remaining lemon juice and 1/4 C water and pour around apples. Place dish in oven for 40 to 45 minutes or until firm but tender.

Prepare Vanilla Honey Yogurt: Place yogurt in a strainer lined with paper towel and set strainer over a bowl. Let sit in fridge for no less than 1 hour or until thick. Pour off liquid, place thickened yogurt in bowl and stir in vanilla and honey. Spoon 1 T yogurt over each warm baked apple and sprinkle with remaining nuts.

My Review: It was tasty, but I completely screwed this recipe up. I only used two apples, but I kept the filling and yogurt amounts the same. I also mixed the lemon juice with the stuffing ingredients, by mistake. Since Greek yogurt is already pretty thick, I didn't mess with the whole strainer thing. And let me tell you, chopping up prunes is disgusting! But, when all is said and done, these apples were pretty delicious and very filling!